The court affirms a district court's dismissal of individuals' substantive due process claims challenging the constitutionality of the Montana Stream Access Law. This law allows the use of all surface waters that are capable of recreational use without regard to ownership of the land underlying the ...

The court holds that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar an individual's federal criminal prosecution for violating the Clean Air Act (CAA) asbestos-removal regulations even though he was previously assessed a civil penalty for the same conduct by a county health district. The individual entered...

The court affirms a lower court decision holding a landowners' takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) ripe, but reverses the lower court's decision that the taking was permanent. The Corps' denial of the landowners' fill permit application was a final decision rendering t...

The court holds that application of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to a commercial housing development that threatened the continued existence of the arroyo southwestern toad, an endangered species, was a constitutional exercise of federal authority under the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court previo...

The court rejects a timber company's Declaratory Judgment Act claim against two private environmental groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The environmental groups filed a notice of intent to sue the FWS and the NMFS under the Endangered...

The court holds that a solid waste flow control requirement imposed by a 22-county waste authority in Mississippi violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The authority required waste haulers to deliver collected materials to a designated publicly owned facility. The ruling in United H...

The court holds that real estate developers who voluntarily participated in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) low-income housing programs suffered a compensable, temporary, regulatory taking under the Fifth Amendment when the U.S. Congress enacted the Emergency Low-Income Housin...

The court holds that a trial court erred in its determination that real estate developers who claimed that the government's enactment of legislation relating to low-income housing programs that breached contracts between the developers and the United States did not possess protectible real property ...

The court holds that the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), in requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate national primary drinking water regulations, is a valid exercise of power under the U.S. Commerce Clause. Petitioners argued that the SDWA exceeds the federal government...

The court upholds the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') determination that listing the northern goshawk in the western United States as a threatened or endangered species was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act. The FWS' decision was amply supported by evidence in the record. Based ...